My university graduation is this Saturday! After four years of trials, tribulations, dealing with shady group members and semesterly "I'm going to fail everything!" panic attacks, I've finally earned myself an undergrad degree in Psychology with Sociology!
I'm freeeee! (For now.)
Celebrate with me by having another chapter of Specialist Potter!
After the summer he'd had, Harry found himself being back at Red Fountain a rather surreal experience.
Fighting with Voldemort twice- including a raid on one of his locations, capturing the Carrows, training with the Queen and Princess of Tir Nan Og, the Trix deserting Voldemort, the events at the Young Royals Gala...
All in all, the excitement of those adventures put all of his previous summers to shame.
"Harry, dude! Welcome back!" Darian greeted him enthusiastically as soon as he spotted him in the school's courtyard.
"It's nice to be back, Darian! How was your summer?" Harry asked the burly blond.
"It was really nice, man. That resort was really fun. Had lots of exciting stuff to do and I have to say that the food was excellent. As well as the sights." Darian grinned at the memory.
"And by sights, you mean girls, right?" Harry quizzed as they made their way to the elevators, amongst the crowd of other newly arrived students, he balancing Hedwig's cage on top of his luggage as the snowy owl had flown ahead.
"But of course, Harry!" Darian high-fived him. "Rumour has it that you've been having a much more exciting summer than I have though. Or probably anyone else in this school..."
They managed to get into an elevator with a few other students and were on their dorm's floor in short order.
"Rumours? Back here in Magix?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"Oh yeah. They started all the way back when summer started when you brought the troops to Hogsmeade to save it from being flattened by the Trix. Then from that, rumours basically about how hard it is for a particularly psychopathic dark wizard from your home world to kill you started to spread..."
Harry wanted to hide his face in his hands.
"Plus you're dating the Princess of Tir Nan Og, the newly restored magical realm on Earth. Congratulations, Harry. You're gaining notoriety here in Magix as well as back on your home world!" Darian chortled.
Harry sighed. "Just bloody fantastic. Just what I need..."
"Just ride it out, man. The Winx Club gained notoriety after their first year battling the Trix and as I understand it, you had it from the time you were a toddler. Shouldn't you be used to this by now?" Darian asked.
"It doesn't mean that I have to actually like it..." Harry muttered as he unlocked the door to their dorm.
"Hey look! It's the one-man Winx Club!" Aki exclaimed as soon as he saw him, getting up from the chair where he was reading a rather... explicit magazine, not even bothering to hide its contents.
Harry actually hid his face in his hands at these words. "No, no, no..."
"I was just telling him about the fame he's been gaining here in Magix. He doesn't seem to like it at all..." Darian chuckled.
"Well he's gonna have to live with it, 'cause the word's already out! Hey there, Harry! Your summer was an exciting one, wasn't it?" Aki asked.
Harry glared at them both briefly. "It certainly wasn't boring. At all. At some points, I actually wished it was boring..."
The three young men looked up as they heard the door opening and saw Lucas stepping through.
"Greetings and salutations all. I trust you all had acceptable summers?" Lucas asked.
He turned to look at Harry. "No need to answer that, Harry. I already heard about your summer..."
Harry let out a cry of exasperation as he took his stuff and went into his and Aki's room.
"What is his problem?" Lucas asked.
"Hell if I know." Aki shrugged, resuming his 'reading'.
Lucas noticed the magazine. "Really, Aki? Really?"
"Aki, is that the latest copy of Lusty Ladies magazine?!" Darian exclaimed once he noticed Aki's magazine.
"It is indeed, my friend. I'm not lending you this. Go get your own copy- wait... isn't that Alia?" Aki's eyes widened.
"No way! Wasn't she a Senior at Alfea last year?!" Darian moved forward to get a peek.
"Yeah, but she graduated! Guess we know what career she got into now!" Aki cackled madly at the picture of a burgundy-haired girl in a rather skimpy outfit.
"Sweet Dragon. It is Alia!" Darian's eyes widened.
Lucas face-palmed, moved to pack away his things and went right back out the dorm once he was finished.
"Roxy! Hey!" Athena moved forward to hug her dorm mate as soon as she entered the dorm.
"Hey Athena! How are you?" Roxy smiled as she hugged back.
Artu, meanwhile, was receiving a rather enthusiastic greeting from Anahita, belly rubs and all.
"I'm good. But how are you, my Earthling friend? We only just saw other at the Young Royals Gala but I missed you anyway!" Athena squealed.
"I missed you too, Roxy. Just excuse me if I am not as enthusiastic in my greetings as my sister is..." Anahita moved in for a hug as well.
"You're excused. At least your lack of squeals didn't threaten to rupture my eardrums..." Roxy rubbed her ears, cringing slightly.
"Sorry!" Athena looked slightly ashamed.
"HEEEY EVERYBODY!"
The three fairies and dog were nearly bowled over by Rainer's rather loud and overly enthusiastic greeting.
"Ack!" Anahita shook her head to clear it. "Rainer, why... what would possess you to do that?!"
"My ears hurt even more..." Roxy moaned.
"Who's ringing those bells?" Athena complained.
"Oh, stop it. I wasn't so bad!" Rainer waved dismissively, snapping her fingers and commanding her luggage to float into hers and Roxy's room and sinking into a chair, casually crossing her legs. "What's up with you all?"
"I know what's down," Anahita grumbled. "My hearing. That's what's down..."
Rainer rolled her eyes. "You exaggerate. Anyway, I can't wait 'til Krystal gets here. I'm sure we all have plenty of juicy stories we can share before we have to go to assembly..."
"Plenty of juicy stories that you could then go and spread among the other denizens of Alfea, right?" Roxy raised an eyebrow.
"You've only known me for a year, yet you know me oh so well..." The Androsian fairy smirked.
The door swung open once again and in strolled Krystal.
"Hello everyone. How are things with you?" she asked.
"Besides Rainer rupturing our eardrums? We're okay." Athena answered.
"I'm glad I missed that then." Krystal perched herself on the armrest of Rainer's chair. "Can you believe that it's already been a year since we all met? Since we were Freshmen?"
"I know, right? We're actually Sophomores now. We survived Freshman year!" Athena exclaimed.
"And none of us failed a single course!" Rainer exclaimed.
"I knew we would do it. None of us are stupid and our powers worked fine, so we could do the work. Plus we did nothing worthy of expulsion..." Anahita shrugged, indifferent to it all.
"Seventeen years of life and you can't get excited about anything at all, can you?" Athena asked her twin.
"What is there to be excited about? We completed our Freshman year as expected, did decently, moved onto Sophomore year... There is nothing unusual in that." Anahita pointed out.
Athena rolled her eyes and sighed.
"You see?!" she turned to the other three fairies as she gestured to her sister. "This is what I have to put up with. This. She doesn't seem to get particularly excited or happy about anything besides books. Books are her magic source! She doesn't need to be especially excited about them!"
It was Anahita's turn to roll her eyes. "Athena, you well know that my powers are over more than books. Words, languages in general, it gives me extra skill in runes and incantations..."
"Blah, blah, blah. I'm a techno fairy and you don't always see me fawning over the latest supercomputer..." Athena said.
"Two words: Cosmo 4." Anahita retorted.
"That was different and you know it, Anahita!" Athena exclaimed.
All the while, Roxy, Rainer and Krystal watched them amusedly.
"Days like this are when I'm glad to be an only child..." Roxy murmured.
"I hear you..." Krystal agreed.
"Eh... She's not my twin, but having Nephele as a big sister isn't so bad. We get along well, even with the whole witch/fairy thing..." Rainer shrugged.
The mini-squabble ended with Athena face-palming and Anahita rolling her eyes.
"Anyway..." Athena fixed her attention on Roxy. "How was your summer? The only time we got to see you was for the Young Royals Gala. I hear you and your boyfriend had quite the exciting summer!"
"Where did you hear that?" Roxy raised an eyebrow.
"I have my sources." Athena's tone was mischievous.
"As do I. Your boyfriend's becoming mighty famous, Roxy. Better keep a closer eye on him!" Rainer giggled.
Roxy glared. "He's not that type of guy, you know..."
"We all know that. We could totally see how into you he was at the Gala." Anahita reassured her. "It's just that other girls might not know that..."
"And even if they did, they still wouldn't care. I can think of a certain witch in particular..." Krystal said.
"Aquila..." All five fairies voiced their thought in unison.
"It started after that little trip we took to Hogsmeade to help out against the Trix. It was he who raised the alarm here first of all, then people saw how he fought, saw a bit of Earth's hidden magical world and while there, they heard about him and his small issue with 'Lord' Voldemort..." Rainer counted off her points on her fingertips as she spoke.
"I would hardly call his issue with Lord Voldemort a small one..." Roxy pointed out.
"Details, details." Rainer waved dismissively. "Either way, he's becoming quickly known here. I've even heard Nephele and her friends call him the one-man Winx Club..."
Athena, Anahita and Krystal giggled at that.
"That one, we've not heard of..." Anahita snorted when Roxy rolled her eyes.
Roxy checked her watch. "Come on. Assembly's in a few. Don't want to be late, do we?"
"That segue wasn't smooth at all, but we'll ignore it." Anahita stood up from her chair.
Athena looked as if she was about to say something, but Anahita elbowed her and she remained quiet although glaring at her twin.
"To those of you amongst us for the first time: welcome. To our returnees, welcome back."
Harry sat with his dorm mates in the assembly hall, listening to Saladin's beginning of year speech once again.
He glanced around at his fellow students, noticing that all the Freshmen seemed to sit together, while the older years were more mixed in their seating.
Were he, Darian Aki and Lucas like that? He never noticed...
A whole year had come and gone of him attending school in Magix and he'd survived it.
Survived school on another planet; in another realm!
Harry vaguely wondered if Voldemort could have done the same.
"Hard to believe that we're here again as Sophomores, eh?" Aki whispered to his group.
"Just last year, we were mere Freshies, all wide-eyed and fresh-faced to the realities of college life..." Darian chuckled.
"Especially Harry, since he's from Earth and all. Didn't know a thing about Magix..." Even Lucas got in on it.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Alright, children. Settle down and listen to the Headmaster..."
Once the assembly was over, they all mixed and mingled in the auditorium before heading to their dorms, since classes were scheduled to start the next day.
"Hey, Potter! Harry!" a voice called out to him over the din of chattering young men.
Harry turned towards the voice to see Prince Matthias making his way towards him.
"Ah, Prince Matthias. Marvellous to see you." Harry affected a fake snobbish tone, the snobbishness of which was amplified to Matthias (and those around them), simply because of his accent.
"Knock it off, Boy-Who-Lived." Matthias rolled his eyes.
"Okay, we'll call that even then." Harry nodded. "I see you're keeping your word about keeping in touch with me on campus..."
"Yep. I always keep my word. What would it look like for a future king to be constantly be caught in different webs of lies?" Matthias shrugged. "I figure I'd only lie if it were absolutely necessary to mine, my family's or my planet's safety. Other situations may come up that I may have to stretch the truth a bit, but..." the older male shrugged.
The back of Harry's right hand tingled slightly as a flash of Umbridge and her torture-detentions passed through his mind.
He shook off the moment.
"I can understand that." Harry nodded. "So... it's your Senior yeah, eh? How do you feel about making it all the way to this point?"
"Proud. It'll be an achievement I actually worked to earn on my own. I was born a prince. First in line to the throne of my world. But this... I actually did this on my own..." Matthias answered.
"I get the feeling." Harry nodded. "When I showed up at Hogwarts, people were in awe of me for something I didn't even remember and that I would have never wanted..."
"And now you're here, free to do your own thing, without the expectations of your home society. Not too many people here know of my home world or royal status so I have more freedom here in Magix as well. It's nice."
"Yeah, it is..." Harry agreed. "So, how is your sister doing?"
"Chantal is just fine. Dropped her off at Cloud Tower first before I got here this morning. Regine was just getting there too and they started up what looked like a rather lively conversation as they headed in." Matthias chuckled. "How's your girlfriend?"
"Roxy's just great. We left Earth together and I accompanied her to Alfea before I headed over here. Seems to be looking forward to her second year there..." Harry shrugged.
"We're quite the gentlemen, aren't we? Me, escorting my sister to school and you escorting your girlfriend to her school..." Matthias noted.
"I suppose so..." Harry agreed.
After a short chat about other random topics, Harry changed the topic.
"About witches, I look forward to having that discussion about them that you mentioned back on Domino..." Harry said.
"Certainly, certainly." Matthias nodded. "But not today. That is a long topic. I hear that Lucas, one of the guys in your group, is from a witch dominated planet- Spectra. Perhaps you should ask him later. He would know about that sort of thing too."
"I'll be sure to do that. See you around?" Harry asked him.
"Of course." Matthias gave him a little wave as they parted.
"What was that all about? You having a little chat with the Crown Prince of Bolas?" Lucas quizzed him as Harry reached him.
"Just continuing a conversation we had at the Young Royals Gala is all." Harry shrugged.
"If you say so. Listen, the other guys are heading out into town later. You coming with?" Lucas asked.
"Sure, why not?" Harry nodded. "Anyway, I hear your world is majority-witch, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is. Why?" Lucas raised an eyebrow.
"I just have a few questions about witches is all..."
"Very well. Ask away. I'll tell you what I know..."
Roxy and her dorm mates were strolling about the courtyard when they noticed that they were being stared at quite frequently, especially by the Freshmen.
"The hell are they staring at?!" Athena narrowed her eyes at a nearby Freshman, who practically scrambled away at the look the technology fairy was giving her.
"Let's see..." Anahita began counting the reasons off on her fingers. "We have Crown Princess Krystal of Linphea in our group, Crown Princess Roxy of Tir Nan Og- which is on Earth when the planet was formerly magic-less for hundreds of years, Lady Rainer of Andros whose mother and sister happen to be witches... and then there's us..."
Athena rolled her eyes.
"I'm sensing a dry, sarcastic side I've not seen in your sister before, Athena..." Roxy noted.
"Ah, she's always been like that. Just never shows it much. I'm just the nicer, friendlier, funnier and better looking twin." Athena grinned, flicking her hair as if she were in a shampoo commercial.
"You're identical, Athena. How could you be better looking than her?" Krystal raised an eyebrow.
"I just am, Krystal. No worries." Athena smiled sweetly.
Anahita rolled her eyes while Roxy and Rainer giggled.
They found a bench near the well and sat and chatted.
"So what did all of you do over the summer anyway? Besides the Gala?" Rainer quizzed.
"Well, our parentals took us to the Resort Realm for a bit, then we got to spend time between our grandparents from Zenith and Romulea." Anahita said.
"Grandpa and Grandma Linux are always fun to visit. They're the kooky, cool grandparents." Athena smiled. "They were working on some new robotic household assistant this summer and we got to help a bit. It was fun."
"At least, until it went berserk and attacked us. Fun? Certainly not." Anahita scowled. "Senile is more like it..."
"Just because you prefer Grampy and Gran Clairmont. Because they're the side of the family that your powers come from..." Athena rolled her eyes. "Don't you remember the time that they were cataloguing those books and that crazy one ate us?!"
"They got us out quickly enough!" Anahita was immediately on the defensive.
"I never knew they were this interesting..." Rainer observed.
"Sounds like eccentricity runs in their family..." Roxy agreed. "Anyway, what about you, Rainer? How did you spend your summer?"
"At the beach. Which doesn't really say much as pretty much anywhere on Andros is near to a beach or some other body of water..." Rainer shrugged. "I caught up with some of my friends there and went surfing, diving, exploring with them... I even got to go deep enough underwater to go visit the mermaids!"
"What are they like? Mermaids?" Roxy asked. "Harry tells me that the ones he knows aren't all that pleasant..."
"They're really nice! I mean, any Androsian would know how to swim, but not every one of us wants to chance going down so far into their part of the planet, even though they'll come up to the surface and talk to us sometime. Me, Nephele and some other friends did though and I think it was totally worth it!" Rainer whipped out a cell phone and pressed a button.
An image of it displayed her and her older sister in bodysuits, along with some others they didn't recognise, hanging out in what looked like an underwater city with a few mermaids.
Athena and Anahita had stopped their little squabble when Rainer started talking about her underwater adventures and were staring at the picture in awe.
"It looks really nice there. Too bad we can't swim..." Athena said.
"Oh?" Rainer raised an eyebrow. "You can't swim, can you?"
The look on Rainer's face promised trouble for them sometime in the nearby future and the twins would come to regret their admission.
"Eh... Mine was nice. Nothing particularly special, but nothing really boring either..." Krystal shrugged. "I spent time with my parents and pretty much doing stuff like summer school and circulating at different events- charity and otherwise. I did get to do a planetary tour though. It was really enlightening truly seeing the different parts of my domain..."
"What about you, Roxy? We know that you spent it with Harry..." Athena waggled her eyebrows.
"...in your realm and your palace no less..." Rainer spoke teasingly.
"Did you spend a lot of time exploring the island together?" Krystal giggled.
"Or did you spend the time exploring each other?" Rainer snorted.
Rainer, Krystal and Athena burst out in giggles when Roxy reddened and Anahita rolled her eyes.
"Must every conversation you start with her about her and Harry veer towards lewdness?" Anahita sighed.
"Yes." Athena and Rainer answered in unison.
"You and Aki, my dear sister. Shall I show him some pictures from our childhood? Specifically the one where you tried building your own computer when we were seven?"
"You mean Gali? You wouldn't dare..." Athena growled.
"Girls, it's actually an interesting story. You see, one time, when we were seven, Athena got it in her little head that she could make her own computer herself. Mother and Father humoured her..." Anahita started.
"Don't do it, Anahita..." Athena glared at her sister.
Roxy smiled to herself as she enjoyed the rest of her first day as a Sophomore with her roommates.
They were certainly an interesting bunch, that was for certain...
Filler-ish, but I hoped you liked it anyway. Which leads me to a question I have for you all.
Would you mind seeing some filler chapters? As in some which do not directly move towards the main plot of Harry and his allies/friends against Voldemort/the Death Eaters? The books had some chapters that could be considered filler in that regard and Winx Club did have episodes where they weren't fighting/preparing to fight the villain anyway. Things like side adventures and small subplots. There won't be too much of it, but you'll get to see another side of Harry and Roxy in Magix if I go for it. Let me know in your reviews.